We drove about half an hour north to Walnut Shade, MO to Bear Creek Winery in the hills of the Ozark Mts. Drove down a gravel driveway and expected a small little winery but what we got was three cabins in the woods, a big two story lodge, a wedding reception room to seat about 150 (they do 250 wedding here a year) a beautiful outdoor setting for a wedding, koi ponds and streams and a small little winery. The wine we liked was called Bear’s Breath. Really inviting, cozy little place with the friendliest Manx cat I’ve ever met.

And about a half mile up the road is the Copper Run Distillery. We tried a sampling of their 120 percent Ozark Mountain Moonshine, their Spirit Whiskey and their White Rum. Which tasted like turpentine, rocket fuel and monkey piss. I’ve never tasted any of these but this is what I imagine they would taste like. We probably should have tried their infusions, like apple pie, limoncello, orange maple or vanilla bean, but we just wanted to get rid of the taste. Nice view of the mountains from here, though.

From there we drove a few more miles north to Ozark, MO and Lambert’s Café, home of the throwed rolls. We were here last year and loved it. They throw you the rolls and are really accurate. When you catch ‘em they’re hot though. Then they follow up with sorghum molasses to put on them. With dinner you get two sides plus they walk around with fried okra, potatoes and onions, macaroni and tomatoes and black eyed peas. And enough food for the next couple of nights. We brought home more than we ate.

A few more miles north was Springfield, MO where we went to Oovvda Winery (Overboes (the owner’s name) Own Viking Vintner Distinctive Alcohol). It’s also a Scandanavian word that is used like an interjection, (Uh Oh, Oh My, Drats, or my favorite, Crap). Beautiful vineyard, lots of fruit, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, blueberries that they made wine with and a dog to greet us named Ashley. Beautiful setting, but we weren’t crazy about the wines.

So now we’ve done moonshine and wine, let’s try some beer. I saw a six-pack of Three Blind Mice Ale at one of the wineries from Mother’s Brewery right in Springfield. I thought it would be a tavern, restaurant or pub but it was a big craft brewery and, lo and behold, it’s Craft Beer Week in Springfield. Brian, the brewer makes all kinds of beer but we liked the Chocolate Thunder Porter, made from Askinosie chocolate-a chocolate bean locally grown in Springfield, and Sexual Healin’-vanilla and coffee stout. After trying those, the wheat ales I usually like tasted like water. We met a great couple there who told us that they sometimes have yoga after the beer tasting and sometimes bocce and as we were leaving they were setting up a bocce court on the lawn outside and people were starting to congregate.

They also told us we should visit Bass Pro Shops because it was the original one. It was the biggest one I’ve seen but similar to all the others.

Time for the ballgame-the Springfield Cardinals (minor league team of the Springfield Cardinals) vs. the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (minor league team of the Kansas City Royals). The rain never came, it was a good game, lots of action and the home team won in the last few innings 6-4. But the best part was that we each got a Louie bobblehead picture frame.